Beach episode with a heartwarming end. The way Sato sees herself as being unable to change was a bit sad, but my hope for this season is that her ship with Ishikawa sails.

@rikka@ani.social

<Three Cheats from Three Goddesses: The Broke Baron’s Youngest Wants a Relaxing Life Volume 1> - MC is as slow as they come. It starts right in the prologue. He gets isekaied, realizes that he got reincarnated as a baby, a girl steps in and says his new name and that she is his sister, and he is baffled because that’s not his name, and he doesn’t have a sister. So he’s unable to comprehend that he has after reincarnation (a concept that he understands), now has a different name and a sister. I really hate writing like this. Just make him confused after reincarnation, and no one would bat an eye if he doesn’t immediately get it. But having him first realize that he’s reincarnated without a problem and then wirite him unable to understand that this concept comes with a new identity pisses me just off. I like that the three goddesses are permanent side characters instead of the usual “here’s your blessing” and done characters in most series. They are entertaining, and I consider them the real main characters of the series. 6/10

<No One Gets Past This Gatekeeper: The Unwanted Warrior Guards His New Post: Volume 1> - Oh nooooo. MC gets kicked out of the number 1 adventurer party because he just stands there in fights and gets attacked by the monsters while the other members do all the damage. I hate this setup so much. Why are all those supposedly top-tier adventuring parties always incapable of understanding simple concepts like a tank or support role? The rest of the story isn’t any better. It’s basically a Woobie that just takes all the punches his old party and his new openly corrupt superiors throw at him. The prose is clumsy and stilted. Dropped 2/10

<EXP Is Golden: Volume 2> - This is another one of those series that follow everyone except the main character. I think here more than two-thirds were from the POV of someone else than the MC. The latter half also felt very disconnected somehow, as if it were just a quick recap of what happened. 5/10

Fluffy-Eared Realm Restoration sounds like something for me. And Abducted Princess Running Rampant is hopefully something along the lines of the Sleepy Princess anime. I loved that one. The Villainess Is Dead! Long Live the Empress! sounds also like something I would give a try. Isekai Tensei for the continuing series, even though I wasn’t so happy with the last few volumes IIRC.

@rikka@ani.social

Nope. His father was never high on the royal hierarchy and only became Zent because everyone else got killed. After that, the family was barely keeping the country from falling apart after the civil war. It’s perfectly normal that an expensive personal library wouldn’t be high on his agenda. And since everyone is trying to keep Rozemyne’s personality under wraps, especially towards the royals, it’s understandable that they don’t know what the right bait would be to hook her.

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I’ll just copy a part of my notes from The Invincible Summoner Who Crawled Up from Level 1 here:

soooooooooo many stupid plot holes. I get it, not everything can be Bookworm, but at least remember what you wrote just one or two pages back. Or keep an list with items a character possesses when writing so they don’t suddenly have items out of nowhere. Another example from very early on would be MC using his Eye of the God (or whatever) ability, which is basically appraisal, to look at the levels and stats of a group of soldiers. He mentions that many of them are only level 1 to 3 and that their stats are even weak for level 1. Then he does something that needs to stay secret and he he now has to brainwash them. After that, he laments that if only he knew how low-level they were he wouldn’t have to brainwash them. Like… I mean… didn’t he just appraise all of them in the very same chapter and even wonder why they are so low?! The very same chapter!! Next, the power levels are all over the place. As an example, there is a mage who is considered the greatest of the great, a genius, and who dreams of reaching untold heights of human possibilities by casting the highest spell in the Grade 2 tier. Right now he is able to cast the first Grade 2 spell and is considered among the greatest of humanity. A couple of pages later MC is going to pick up a slave girl (obviously) with cat ears (obviously) and she casually tells MC that in order to heal her he would need to go someplace to get Grade 3 magic cast on her. In her back story, her parents (living in some small village) are also casually casting middle Grade 2 spells. So what is it? What is the top of the line here for the people in that world? Power levels are fluctuating to whatever sounds cool at the moment with no other rhyme or reason, I guess.

Another glaring example is Fake Saint of the Year:

There are also some moronic and glaring plot holes. For example, the Saint and the Witch are invulnerable and can only be attacked by each other, but they have an entire academy just to produce knights to protect the Saint. And during a tournament, the Saint asks to sit closer to the ring to see better. She then gets this gem said to her: “I apologize, Lady Ellize. As you know, your security is the most important thing. We cannot run the risk of you getting hurt if a student performs a spell badly or throws a sword in the wrong direction. Please watch the competition from a safe distance.” Again: The Pro- and Antagonist are completely invulnerable to everything except each other.

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It think the disconnect here is what we consider “sad”. To me that event was “horrific” or “disturbing” and left a lasting and negative impression. To me that wasn’t a “eh whatever, it’s sad but shit happens” situation.

Not gonna lie. Seems like a bad faith take to me.

But okay, let’s elaborate. :) Wouldn’t you agree that there is a singular event in the movie that stands out both tonally and narratively. A event that most movie watchers would find surprising, shocking even, and might take offense with? I mean I’m sure there are some cinematically literate geniuses that read all the minute foreshadowing and then felt elated when their predictions came through, or some psychos that really get their kinks in that type of content, but “generally” speaking?

Okay, I’ll bite. If you have seen the movie and someone says to you “I don’t like it because of the thing that happens in it” you’re telling me you have no idea what they mean? No idea whatsoever? And the best answer you can come up with is “because it’s not happy”?

Spoilers for a main plot point of the movie. If you have to ask you haven’t seen it.

Hate the movie. Not because it’s bad, but because of the thing.

“Beneath the clear May sky, I lay in a grassy field, drowning.”

I like that. Perfect example of a great first line.

I think there was happening quite a lot in this volume that drives the plot. Very little filler apart from those different POV chapters. From big battles finding and freeing a attacked village (and the rescue mission for the survivors) to finding long looked for allies, to working through a demon coup d’etat in the capital and saving the saint from assassination attempts. All in one volume. If you think all this is just skippable then I really don’t want to know what volumes meet your expectations.

Tearmoon Empire and Frontier Lord for sure.

<Isekai Walking. Vol. 2> - The volume progesses at a good pace and the story was keeping me interested throughout apart from a few instances where diffrent POV chapters were thrown in. Those chapters broke the flow somewhat and reading the afterword they seem to be added for the novel version which would explain why they stick out so much. But they were very short so it wasn’t too much of a bother. If someone else picks up the volume I would suggest to just skim those chapters since they literally add nothing of worth to the plot. 7/10

<Kusunoki’s Garden of Gods, Vol. 1> - I expected something comfy, but was mostly bored. The writing is as predictable as it gets. Every single time MC notices something wrong, some deus ex machina appears and fixes it immediatly for him. 4/10

<A Cozy Life in the Woods with the White Witch: Volume 2> - This was comfy but the adult MC that gets all flustered because a girl is looking at him archetype is grating. 4/10

Did I spot a wild Rin there?

And now there’s a Chiaki.

Aoi with her little sister as well.

And a Nadeshiko to make the main cast set full.

It’s more along my line of comfy soul-food.

I recommend AnoHana. It is also a drama but with a splash of supernatural instead of romance.

Another easy recommendation in the fantasy genre is Frieren which is currently the highest rated anime on MAL, so it’s hard to go wrong there.

My personal favorite anime is Haibane Renmei but after that, there isn’t much worth in watching anything else anymore since it’s only downhill from there, so I suggest to only watch it once you got your fill.